SocialNext

Foursquare Strikes Back: Using Irony

In my previous post I commented on how Starbucks' Foursquare marketing plan of giving discounts to Mayors of their stores was flawed because employees often check in on Foursquare more than customers. Thus it is much more difficult for customers to actually win the discounts. 

Then this morning I checked in to my nearby Starbucks...and became the Mayor...and got the discount.

Well played Foursquare. Well played.

Gowalla Exploits Foursquare’s Mayor Weakness

Underdog location-based social network Gowalla has launched a new marketing promotion that has a great chance of gaining traction over rival Foursquare.

Companies can partner with Gowalla to reward check-ins randomly with chances to win a prize or, even if you didn’t win, a discount coupon. This is different from Foursquare’s marketing programs with companies like Starbucks of rewarding users who are “Mayors” (people who check-in to a location the most).

Here’s an example of Gowalla’s program with Eye-Fi via TechCrunch:

…when a person checks in through Gowalla at any U.S.-based Best Buy or Apple Store, they’ll automatically have a chance to win a free 4 GB Eye-Fi card. A message will pop up on their screen about the card post check-in. And a simple click on the “Did I win?” button below that message will reveal if you’re a winner of the $75 card the spot. There will be 500 winners for this particular promotion.

But even if you don’t win, the check-in grants you access to a coupon code for one year’s worth of free hotspot access if you do choose to purchase an Eye-Fi card. 

The weaknesses of Foursquare’s “Mayor” discounts are two-fold: 

1. Employees are often the Mayors of their stores: How can you offer a discount to the Mayor of your store if the Mayor isn’t even a customer? If customers feel like they can’t actually achieve the discount what’s the point? That’s why any company that works with Foursquare has to have an Employee Foursquare Policy that discourages employees from checking in.

2. As a user if I know I’ll never be the Mayor I sometimes don’t bother to check-in: Let’s say Best Buy has a deal with Foursquare to reward Mayors with discounts. If I don’t go to Best Buy often I know I’ll never be the Mayor so I probably won’t check-in on Foursquare. However, if the reward is a random check-in on Gowalla I will definitely do so. This increases my chance of winning something and will also get users in the habit of using Gowalla more.

Props to Team Gowalla. If they can get more companies to sign on to this type of program it could be a windfall of positive press and increased adoption by users.

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How to Get Around Facebook’s Lack of Vanity URLs

According to Stan Schroeder over at Mashable, Facebook is testing user interest in offering vanity URLs (example: facebook.com/johnboyle)…for money.

This is probably more of an effort to target businesses than actual users but I’m sure many users will bite regardless.

Facebook’s long cumbersome URLs can be frustrating for marketing purposes. Here’s a little trick I use to get around it – a simple redirect script on my own site.

For example instead of trying to use this link on marketing materials:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=10785050283&ref=ts

I simply use this link which redirects to the above URL: http://www.trainofthought.info/facebook/

Simple, easy and free.

Can YouTube’s Favorite Content Creators Survive without Constant Promotion by YouTube?

Google-owned YouTube has been hitting the PR circuit proving to everyone that content creators can make a significant amount of money on YouTube and advertisers can be successful advertising on this platform.

But the dirty little secret I wonder about is how often does YouTube feature these “Top Earners” on their front page?

I don’t need to tell you that being featured on the front page of YouTube will bring massive amounts of views…to sell advertising off of. I wonder if YouTube is doing everything they can to promote these “Top Earners” to perpetuate their PR spin of people being able to make money off content creation.

It helps encourage people to start accounts and, most importantly, gives YouTube the advertising success stories they badly need.

Facebook Needs Customized URLs

I’ve started a Facebook group for my sketch comedy troupe and so far the results are pretty good. It’s easy to email people and the onus to join is on Facebook members. You can’t send random friend requests to solicit new converts like on MySpace.

However my big problem is the URL. Facebook is an emerging platform that is growing rapidly and I want to include it in my marketing materials but guess which URL doesn’t look right:

http://www.trainofthought.info
http://www.myspace.com/sketchcomedy
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10785050283

That will look awful on a business card. I want to use Facebook more as a marketing platform for my group but I need them to meet me halfway.

Romney Asks for User-Generated Ads

MSNBC’s First Read is reporting that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is launching a user generated ad contest via JumpCut.com.

I hope they watch the submissions closely because this is nothing short of playing with fire. While they’re hoping for positive ads they will undoubtedly get many negative ads as well that, even if removed, will be reposted elsewhere on the net…all with official looking “Romney for President” imagery.

Don’t they remember the failed do-it-yourself ad campaign for the Chevy Tahoe that resulted in angry anti-SUV / pro-environment ads? When viral marketing backfires it can get really ugly. I hope the Romney campaign is prepared for the potential fallout.

Anatomy of an Attempted Viral Video About Barry Bonds

Many content creators just make a video, put it on YouTube and hope it goes viral. It’s tough. There’s a lot of stuff out there. This is why I try to make videos about something people can identify with.

Case in point: Barry Bonds breaking the all time home run record. Personally I don’t like Bonds and I know I’m not alone. So I wrote a video (performed by my friend Ryan) about how Bonds signed a deal with the devil to get the record. Here’s the strategy I employed (the video is below):

1. Have it ready: We made the video over the weekend before Bonds broke the record. I uploaded it to YouTube and MySpace as private. When Bonds broke the record I just made it live.

2. Keep it short: It’s only a minute long. The longer the video the harder it is to go viral in most cases.

3. Unique delivery: A puppet Satan helps make it stand out from the crowd.

Here’s what I learned:

If there is an event that is building up to one moment (like the home run record) it is better to create something for the buildup rather than the moment. We’ve been talking about Bonds’ pursuit of Hank Aaron’s record for almost a year. If we had written a video about that the video would have legs for a lot longer. Even if the video we made goes viral all over the place it still wouldn’t get as many views as it would have over a several month period.

Google Results Integrate Video Thumbnails from Competitors

It appears that Google is integrating thumbnails of videos in its search results but not just from Google-owned properties like YouTube.

I was going through my traffic logs for my sketch comedy group and found Google supplied a thumbnail and direct link to one of our videos on MySpace.

Google could simply use this feature on YouTube videos giving them a huge clickthru advantage but they’re choosing not to. According to WebTVWire Google is also providing thumbnails for videos on Yahoo Video, MetaCafe, YouTube, Google Video, MySpace and Vimeo.

It’s a smart move, one that truly speaks to Google's mission of organizing the world’s information.